December 24, 2016

A friend has challenged me to prove that Donald Trump will govern as a conservative. I have taken this challenge to highlight some key points; but first, I must admit that I originally supported Ted Cruz for president due to some concerns I had on some positions Trump had taken prior to his declared candidacy for president. Now, it is difficult to comprise a list prior to the man becoming president; but looking at his agenda and those people he has selected, I can make a good argument on his behalf.

Pence – Trump had to gain confidence with conservatives and his number one pick was to bring in Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. Pence was also a Cruz supporter; but has taken control and may become one of the most influential vice presidents ever.

Supreme Court – Trump was not shy about the type of justices he would nominate to the US Supreme Court. With Justice Antonin Scalia’s passing, the direction of the court weighed on the next president. Trump has comprised a list of 21 conservative justices who would carry the torch of representing the US Constitution for years to come.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions – A staunch conservative who will fight against corruption in a non-partisan way.

Ben Carson – Sec of Housing and Urban Development. This man came out of the ghetto of Detroit to become one of the most successful individuals in American history. A Christian conservative who believes in working hard to become all you can be.

Tom Price – Sec of Health and Human Services. He has been the biggest critic of Obamacare and as a physician; he will lay the groundwork for the repeal.

Betsy DeVos – Sec of Education – She has been a supporter of state rights for Education and providing competition for education through Charter Schools and voucher programs for those in areas of struggling schools.

Homeland protection – With Generals John Kelly (Homeland Security), Michael Flynn (National Security Advisor) and James Mattis (Sec of Defense), I can not think of a great list of advisors in the ear of Trump to keep America safe.

Scott Pruit – Sec of EPA – There is no one better to run the EPA than the man who is suing the EPA. This is my most ironic pick. He will move to get rid of so many regulations that are hurting our country.

Rick Perry – Sec of Energy. Perry has actually called for the elimination of the Energy Dept. This dept should actually be the Dept of non-Energy. They do not create energy but only place regulations to limit energy.

Mick Mulvaney – Office of Management and Budget. This Tea Party supporter who supports the conservative House Freedom Caucus and led the effort to force out House Speaker John Boehner. Trump said, “Mulvaney has long been a strong voice in Congress for reining in out-of-control spending, fighting government waste and enacting tax policies that will allow working Americans to thrive.”

Stephen Bannon – Chief Strategist. A man that I had the pleasure of speaking to in the past. The strategist and campaign manager behind Trump winning. A conservative businessman, media executive, navy officer, and banker. He has connections and his news corporation of Breitbart News provided conservatives with the actual truth away from the liberal media.

A hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).

A requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.

A 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service and a ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government with a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

Renegotiate NAFTA with our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama.

Cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities

Begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back

Suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.

Reduction in Taxes.

Create a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.

Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment.

Provide our veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice.

This is by no means everything. I did not mention the wall, which Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan is against. Trump will not only need to fight Democrats, he will need to fight those in his own party. Trump most likely will not be able to get everything done; but if he were to get 80% done, I will be happy as a conservative. There are many people in his ear; but I like most of those he has put within shouting distance to keep him focused on a conservative agenda.

Frank Aquila is president of the South San Joaquin Republicans and author of the book, “Sarah Palin Out of Nowhere.” He can be emailed at mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com

December 17, 2016

Since Donald Trump won the presidency, Hillary supporters and liberals want to find something or someone to blame. They have called Trump supporters racists only to find out 209 counties that voted for Barack Obama flipped to Trump. They have blamed the Electoral College stating the U.S. Constitution needs to be changed. They blamed the FBI for influencing the election after they previous praised the FBI for not filing charges against Hillary. They have rallied behind Jill Stein and the Greens to support a recount in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania claiming Russian hackers sabotaged the election without providing an ounce of evidence. To their displeasure, Trump actually gained votes and the recount exposed voter fraud by election workers in Michigan where several ballots supporting Hillary Clinton were counted multiple times in the Detroit area. Hillary and her supporters then said the election was influenced by fake news. Yet, it was Hillary and the Democrats who supplied many fake news stories including a conspiracy to commit violence and intimidation at Trump events to create the perception that Trump supporters were violent causing the public to be outraged with Trump in an effort to sway and intimidate voters away from supporting Trump.

Undercover journalist, through Project Veritas revealed the conspiracy where the Hillary campaign funded the Democrat National Committee (DNC) to pay Democracy Partners, a political consulting company founded by Bob Creamer. Creamer then funded the Foval group, headed by Scott Foval, who organized rioters to agitate and start disruptions to get bad press at Trump events. Foval stated, “We have to be careful because what we don’t need is for it to show up on CNN that the DNC paid ‘X’ people to..that’s not going to happen.” Talk about fake news to influence people to vote a certain way.

So now where do Hillary and her supporters turn to after they have thrown everything they can at the wall to make it stick? Oh yeah, the Russians did it. I guess they could not blame Bush for this one. After all, liberals must have something or someone to blame.

After the CIA concluded a secret assessment that Russia interfered collaborating with Wikileaks and the hacked emails from Democrats, the CIA admitted they did not have “specific intelligence” and the FBI also gave a differing account of Russian interference.

However, for fun, let’s assume Russia did hack the emails. Why did Obama and Hillary wait so long to act? Why are they only now complaining after Hillary lost? And if Hillary was concerned about cyber-security, shouldn’t she have been wiser not to set up a private server knowing she could be hacked? It was not the Russians that set up her illegal private server or forced her to delete 33,000 emails under subpoena. It was not the Russians who created the DNC scandals of smoke-filled backroom deals. It was not the Russians that made Donna Brazil slip debate questions to Hillary Clinton prior to a debate or force Hillary to accept the questions. The Russians did not force Hillary to lie about Benghazi. The Russians did not force Hillary to use the Clinton Foundation as a “pay for play” money laundering scheme through her influence as Secretary of State.

Hmm, wait a minute. Weren’t many of those donations to the Clinton Foundation from foreign governments? Wasn’t that foreign money used toward Hillary’s campaign to influence voters in her quest to be queen? As a matter of fact, Hillary signed off on a deal to give 20% of American uranium in exchange for millions to the Clinton Foundation to none other than – the Russians! So the evidence of the Russians and other foreign government influence directly points to Hillary and the Democrats. Obama himself has scolded those who engage in influencing foreign elections; but he too provided $300,000 of taxpayer’s money to an organization to defeat Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an earlier election. It is hypercritical to blame anyone of those things you are doing yourself.

These were the same Democrats who defended Hillary for having an illegal private server only to now blame the Russians? Maybe they can blame the election on global warming or tell us Martians were responsible for Trump winning the election. Why not? They have tried everything else.

The fact is America did not like Hillary Clinton, her liberal agenda, or her lies to the American people. So the crybaby liberals think they can keep throwing stones to shatter the glass house of victory by Donald Trump; but sooner or later, these crybabies will run out of people, corporations, nations and world leaders to blame. My advice is that Democrats living in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing stones.

Frank Aquila is president of the South San Joaquin Republicans and author of the book, “Sarah Palin Out of Nowhere.” He can be emailed at mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com